Kitabı oku: «Lilac Wedding in Dry Creek», sayfa 2

Cat reminded herself that’s why she had run away from Jake and the home all those years ago. She’d known back then that he’d marry her for duty, but it wasn’t enough. What if Jake agreed to take Lara, but then treated her like a charity child? He might as well turn her into a toad right now and be done with it.

What had possessed him to send her all that money, anyway? She’d just assumed he knew she’d had a baby seven months after she left the home and had done the math. Over the years, he had sent her forty or fifty thousand dollars. She worked as a waitress at first, and some months she wouldn’t have made rent without his help. Even now that she worked in an office, she didn’t really make enough to do without his assistance. At least she had medical insurance, she told herself.

But money wasn’t everything. She wanted more than that for Lara.

Dear Lord, she thought finally. I need Your help here. Lara needs a father and not an imaginary prince who will break her heart. And I need wisdom to know if he is the right one to raise her if I can’t. He might be her biological father, but will he come to love her as a father should? Every little girl needs to be loved, whether she’s a princess or not.

Chapter Two

Jake pulled out his cell phone when he got back to the counter. Max was looking at him with concern in his eyes, but Jake wasn’t ready to talk about anything yet. His whole life had been picked up and spun around in a whirlwind before landing him back in the same place. He found he couldn’t remember the number to any restaurant in town.

He finally gave up and looked at his old friend. “I’m a father.”

“What?” Max frowned and leaned closer as though he hadn’t heard the words right.

“A father. You know—man, woman, baby.”

Max stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

Jake looked toward Lara. The girl was sitting on the sofa by her mother and adjusting her tiara again. Suddenly, she giggled at something Cat had said.

“But she’s blonde with blue eyes!” Max had followed Jake’s gaze and then turned back.

Jake nodded. Her hair wasn’t just blond, it was naturally curly.

“And you’re a quarter Cherokee with the black hair to prove it. And your eyes are so brown they’re almost black, in case you haven’t looked in the mirror lately. Are you sure?” Then his face flushed. “You wouldn’t be the first man to be fooled by a woman. Maybe Cat, maybe she—”

“No.” Jake glared at his friend. “It was just Cat and me.” His voice broke then. “I trust her with everything and especially that.”

He tried to think of more words to explain and couldn’t. “She’s—Cat. She’d never lie to me.”

They were both silent for a moment.

“You care about her, then?” Max asked gruffly. “This Cat of yours?”

The question surprised him. “Of course, we went through a lot together.”

Even now, being torn between the misery of not having been told when Lara was born and the wonder of just learning that he had a daughter, he still knew Cat was some kind of an anchor in his life. Now that she was here, he didn’t want her to leave. Max could probably see the feelings on his face. Not much escaped the old man.

Max’s voice softened. “I don’t suppose you asked her to marry you yet.”

Jake snorted. “Of course I asked her—years ago. She ran away from the home the next day and I never saw her again. That’s how well that went. Not that it was a good idea, anyway.”

Max was silent as they both turned to look across the room to where Cat and Lara sat, curled up together on the sofa. The gray clouds were lifting and sunshine was streaming in through the large glass windows behind them.

“You probably didn’t say it right,” Max finally said. “You have a hard time getting to the point sometimes. I’ve noticed that.”

“I said she should let me know if she got in trouble. I know a man’s duty. I said I’d marry her if needed. It wasn’t hard to misunderstand that. I didn’t wrap it up in a bow, but she had to have heard me. She just didn’t want to. Not that I blame her. I’m not any prize. You know about my father. None of the Stone men have any business setting up a family.”

Max was quiet for another minute, also studying the mother and child. By now, the sunlight was shining on them directly.

Then Max looked back, and a grin split his face.

“That little girl? She’s really yours?”

Jake nodded and started to grin, himself. “She doesn’t know, so keep it quiet.”

“That means I’m a grandpa!” Max whispered. He’d always said Jake was like a son to him. Then he reached over and flipped the switch on the counter that changed the sign outside to read No Vacancy. “Nobody needs to know why, but we have to do something. You’re a father.”

“I guess I am at that.” Jake stood there, letting the amazement settle in deeper. Maybe it would be okay if he was a father as long as he wasn’t close enough to the child to mess up her life. Cat had never said anything about telling Lara about him. Maybe the girl would never know.

Max frowned in thought. Then his face lit up. “We’ll have a birthday party. We’ve got lots of birthdays to make up for. Cake and ice cream. That should be okay.”

“I sure feel like celebrating.” Jake held the phone more firmly in his hand and started pressing buttons. He did know one number. “I’m calling that steakhouse in the new casino.”

“The fancy one?” Max asked. “They don’t even open until five o’clock. And they’ll never deliver. Maybe they’d do room service in the casino, but not over here. And we need to get a cake. I wonder if the child has a favorite kind.”

Jake put the phone to his ear. “They have that cake place there, too. I’m calling the head chef. He’s always there at this time of day. And he’s a good guy. Besides, he owes me. I handled a family problem for him a while back. His son was getting in with a bad crowd at the tables.”

Max grinned again. “Get me some of those crab cakes, too, then.”

With that, Max turned and opened the door behind the counter. Jake didn’t have time to worry about what the older man was doing by disappearing into the storeroom, not when he had the best chef in Las Vegas on the line.

“How do you like your steaks?” Jake called over to Cat, putting down the phone to muffle the sound of his voice. “And how do you feel about mushrooms?”

The sight of Cat and Lara, sitting with their heads together, made something shift around inside him. He had a new purpose in life. Lara didn’t need to know who he was for him to take care of her. He’d be some family friend that came to school plays once in a while. He’d be the old man in the back of the church at her wedding and he’d give the presents with no name tag on them at holidays. He wouldn’t even need to talk to her over the years. Just making sure she had enough to live a good life would be sufficient.

“Oh, don’t order steaks,” Cat said as she broke apart from her daughter and started to rise. “They’re too expensive. I can walk over to that burger place around the corner. That’ll be enough.”

“Steak—well-done, medium or rare?” Jake asked again. “And stay seated. You’re not walking anywhere. I don’t want you fainting a second time. Especially not when the sidewalks are wet.”

“I guess medium, if I have to choose.” Cat sat back down and brushed her hair away from her face. “But really, it’s not necessary. I never eat steak. And—”

“I’m paying,” Jake interrupted, knowing what was troubling her. Before she came to the home all those years ago, she’d lived on the streets in Fargo.

Now that her hair was drying, it was starting to fly this way and that. Jake remembered the golden-brown halo around her face. She used to look like that when she was studying her math problems. She had that same indecisive look on her face, too. As if she wasn’t sure of the right answer and didn’t want to choose the wrong one.

“I guess it’s all right, then,” she said with a frown.

“And the mushrooms?” he asked.

“Canned or fresh?”

“Imported.”

Now she looked bewildered. “I’ve never had an imported mushroom. What kind?”

“Porcini.” Jake repeated what the chef had told him minutes before. “They also call them the black mushroom. Don’t worry. They’re good.”

She looked at him in full amazement now. “You’ve eaten those mushrooms? You wouldn’t even eat garlic at the home. Said it wasn’t part of your culture. You, with your Cherokee-chief grandfather. You asked the cook to make you fry bread instead. Said the Cherokee were used to their own diet and they were in this country first and should be able to eat what they wanted. Then you used the table as a drum.”

“I guess I was pretty difficult back then,” he admitted.

“You were persuasive, too,” Cat added as she bit her lip nervously. “The cook finally made it for you that one time. She said it was just to shut you up, but she made enough for everybody. It was like a party.”

Trust Cat to find one of the few good memories related to that place.

Jake finished their order by adding roasted white corn with pepper, and truffle mashed potatoes. Then he checked with Lara and ordered a chocolate birthday cake with raspberry filling for dessert. He also asked for the crab cakes to please Max and some macaroni and cheese for Lara in case she didn’t feel like eating what the rest of them did.

“Thirty minutes,” Jake said when he hung up the phone. He’d never spent that kind of money for a meal before and he was surprised to discover it felt so good. He needed to do something to mark this day. He was a father. Maybe not a regular one with Little League and all, but it was more than he ever thought he’d be.

* * *

Cat brushed the hair away from her face as she sat down at the table. She couldn’t believe it. Max and Jake had put a full box of purple candles on the chocolate cake sitting in the middle of the table. The men who brought the food had laid a white tablecloth over the folding table the older man had pulled out of the storeroom. The deliverymen had put real china plates down, too.

There was a big Happy Birthday banner taped to the counter and Jake had explained earlier to Lara that they were celebrating all of the birthdays he and Max had missed—all four of them together. For once Cat was glad for the fairy-tale book. Lara took the party in stride, as though that kind of thing happened every day for good little girls like her.

“They’re fish,” Lara said in delight from where she was seated. She was holding up some kind of macaroni on her fork and she was right; they were fish shaped.

“The chef thought of using one of our French cheeses,” the thickset man who had laid out most of the food said. “But then he decided the little one might be more comfortable with some nice Wisconsin cheddar.”

“Good choice,” Cat said. All those years she’d been a waitress, she’d never seen anything like this. As for French cheeses—who had the money for that? “Thanks.”

Right then, Jake stepped back into the lobby. He’d gone to his room to change out of his damp clothes. She and Lara didn’t have their suitcases, but they had gone to a room and toweled themselves dry.

“Now, doesn’t he look handsome?” Max winked at her from his chair as Jake got closer.

“I’ve never seen him in a suit.” Cat feared she was blushing, but the older man was right. Jake was breathtaking in his dark suit and white shirt. He might have a whole closet full of clothes he wore in this new life of his. She looked closer. That suit was a tuxedo, even if the shirt was regular enough at first glance.

“That’s his wedding suit,” Max said proudly.

Cat felt her breath catch. Wedding! She’d never considered the possibility that Jake would be getting married. Or maybe was already married. If he was, that might change everything for Lara. Wicked stepmothers were the part of fairy tales that Cat believed, herself.

“Who is she?” Cat forced herself to ask. She’d try to keep an open mind.

“It’s his brother,” Max answered back.

She blinked at that, but before she could ask anything more, Jake stepped up to the table and sat in the remaining chair.

“What he’s trying to say is that I’m going to be best man at my brother’s wedding on Saturday so I’m trying the suit out,” he said. “Making sure it’s comfortable.”

One of the men who had delivered the food placed the last glass on the table with a flourish. “That’s everything.”

Jake reached in his pocket and pulled out a handful of bills. “Thanks, everyone.”

The man shook his head. “No need to tip us. The boss has us covered.”

Jake frowned at that, but the man motioned to his coworker and started walking toward the door. “Bon appétit.”

“Mommy, let’s pray so we can eat,” Lara whispered as the men left.

Cat realized that both Jake and Max were sitting at their places and hadn’t touched their silverware or napkins.

“It’s only polite in other people’s houses to—” she began.

Max interrupted. “Go ahead. We pray all the time.”

She could tell the older man felt a little awkward and that it probably wasn’t completely true about the praying. She looked over at Jake.

“Would you do the honors?” he asked.

She looked at him carefully. Even with the smile he had managed, he sounded reluctant. Was he cynical, as well? She couldn’t tell. When they’d known each other as teenagers, neither one of them had given much thought to God. Finally, she just nodded and bowed her head. She waited so everyone had time to get used to the idea. The last one to bow their head was Jake, but he eventually did.

Then she began. “Father, we are grateful for all of the good things You give to us. We ask Your blessing upon those wonderful men who prepared our food. And we ask …” She paused because she felt a sudden sharp pain in her side and needed to wait for it to pass.

“And please bless my very own father, wherever he is.” Lara rushed to fill in the silence with the words that had become part of her bedtime prayers lately. She’d never said them at the table until now.

Cat couldn’t get her breath back enough to stop her. Lara had been curious about her father ever since she realized most of the other children in her preschool had one of those as well as a mother in their families. She had told Lara she had a father, but that was all.

“I figure he’s busy like You are, God,” Lara continued, with her eyes closed and her hands pressed tight together. “Ruling his kingdom and saving the lives of little children. But can You tell him I said hello and that I’m having a birthday party and it’s not even my birthday and if he wants to come, he can ride his dragon here real quick, and I won’t tell anyone I’m a princess because he’s my father and—”

The pain finally passed enough for Cat to speak, so she quickly finished the prayer in a strained voice. “In Jesus’s name, we thank You for all Your bounty. Amen.”

Cat sat there for a moment with her eyes still closed. A better mother would have taken Lara to a child’s psychiatrist by now. She should have found the money to pay somehow. It couldn’t be natural to believe so strongly in something like that. Especially not the tale she’d made up about her father.

When Cat finally opened her eyes, she saw that Jake was looking straight at her, his eyes glowering.

She looked over at Lara. Her daughter was absorbed in eating her macaroni.

When she glanced back at Jake, he’d turned to stare at Lara, too.

“Have you ever seen a picture of your father?” he asked the girl.

She shook her head. “But I know what he looks like. He’s a handsome prince with clothes that shine in the dark and he has a beard and he rides a dragon when he takes toys to little kids who don’t have any. And I think he invented pizza because everybody loves pizza.”

“He’s very busy,” Jake muttered.

Cat thought he looked a little stunned.

“That’s why he can’t come to my parties,” Lara said somberly. “I wish he would. Just once.”

“I’m sure he would come to all of your birthday parties if he knew where you lived.” Jake’s voice was pinched and maybe a little angry.

She couldn’t blame him, but she didn’t want him to go further so she shook her head at him. The effort cost her as a burst of tiny pains radiated from her neck.

She noticed Jake’s eyes deepen again.

“Problem?” he asked quietly, his eyes measuring her.

“Nothing to worry about.”

She hoped that was true. She looked down. Jake saw too much when he wanted to. He’d always known when she was hiding something. Except for those first two months when she was pregnant with Lara. She knew he hadn’t known anything about the baby they had created back then. They were too young to get married, and she knew he’d insist on that.

She forced herself to focus on the food that had been placed on platters or in bowls. Everyone was silent for a good ten minutes while they ate.

“Maybe your brother should spring for crab cakes at his wedding,” Max said with a sigh as he ate the last one on his plate. “That should fit in his budget, even if he and your mother are fixing up the ranch.”

“I doubt anyone makes crab cakes in Dry Creek,” Jake said.

“They might if they tasted these.” Cat lifted the last bite to her mouth. “They’re delicious.”

“I don’t suppose there’s time to get any crab cakes made up before Saturday night, anyway,” Max said.

Cat stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth. “The wedding’s this Saturday?”

Her timing always had been bad. It was Wednesday. That must have been where Jake had been going when she stepped inside the lobby here.

Jake nodded. “When you said you could stay through the weekend, I called my brother and told him that I can’t make it. He threatened to disown me, or at least have our mother call me back, but he knows he needs to get someone else to stand with him.”

Cat had never considered that she would come all this way and Jake might not be here. She had thought about calling, but she didn’t have a phone number and figured she’d have a better chance of convincing him to spend some time with Lara if he could actually see her.

“You have to still go,” Cat said, trying to keep the despair out of her voice. She didn’t want him to resent her and Lara. “You’re the best man.”

“Thank you,” Jake said with a grin.

He looked like a carefree rogue and her heart almost stopped. He was the Jake she remembered.

She forced herself to focus. They weren’t teenagers anymore. “No, seriously. You have to go. Maybe I could get a room until you get back. I have the whole week off and I can ask for some more days if I need to—that is, if you’re coming back soon.”

Dear Lord, I need help, she prayed in panic.

“You’re welcome to stay here if you want,” Max offered immediately. “We don’t have a pool, but there’d be no charge for the room. And there’s a vending machine on the—”

“Don’t get her started on vending machines,” Jake interrupted. “She should come with me. I’ve got lots of room in my pickup.”

She thought he looked a little startled at his invitation, as though he hadn’t planned it before he offered. She wanted to tell him that he didn’t need to worry about them, but pride was a luxury she couldn’t afford any longer. “Lara and I would be happy to go with you.”

Max pushed his chair back from the table. “Well, as sorry as I am not to have you both staying here with me, that’s the perfect solution. I’m going to get some matches so we can light the candles on the cake.”

Fortunately, Jake didn’t ask any more questions. She half expected him to withdraw his suggestion, but he didn’t.

Thank You, Lord. Cat almost said the words aloud, she was so relieved. There would be time for Jake to get to know their daughter. Please, help him love her like I do.

Chapter Three

Something wasn’t right, Jake told himself for the second time that day as he drove his pickup under the overhang in front of the hotel and pulled it to a stop. An hour had passed since he left. He watched the rain drip off the side of the awning as he struggled to figure out what was wrong. The same sense of unease had been niggling away at him all the way to the airport and back, but he didn’t know what was causing it.

Everything seemed to be in order, he finally told himself as he turned off his windshield wipers and then the ignition. The sky was still overcast and the air felt damp inside his cab. Nothing seemed out of place.

He’d gotten the claim tickets from Cat to retrieve her luggage so he knew he had the right suitcases. He’d even stopped at the dealership where he’d bought his pickup several months ago and they had given him a special child’s safety seat for the back of his extended cab. They’d strapped it in and he had picked out a green frog-shaped lollipop from the ones they offered and left it for Lara on the seat. He hoped it was close enough to a toad to make her giggle.

Then he’d filled his vehicle with gas. His duffel bag was tucked behind the passenger’s seat. His suit was in a garment bag, hanging on the hook by the rear window. He had a wad of cash in his pocket and a credit card in his wallet.

He thought a minute longer. Check and doublecheck. Everything was ready. Nothing was out of place or forgotten. He opened the door on the driver’s side of the pickup and stepped down to the slick pavement. At that moment, Cat pushed open the hotel door and stepped outside. Strands of her brown hair trailed across her face and she looked tired as she took a step toward him.

Jake turned so he could open the rear door to his pickup. Then he stepped toward her. “Have you been sleeping okay lately?” he asked.

She nodded, her teeth chattering. She was wearing the same green sweater she’d had on earlier and it didn’t look thick enough to keep anyone warm. He was surprised she hadn’t planned better for the trip. A quick check on any of the weather sites would have told her rain and cold were forecast for this area. He didn’t think she had even a heavy coat with her.

He suddenly realized what was troubling him. Nothing had been planned about all of this. His intuition was right. A man should never count on random luck. There was always a reason for everything. And Cat coming to him now had no reason that he could see. She hadn’t even written to tell him they’d had a baby four years ago. What had changed in all that time? Why had she come now?

Jake looked at her. “Anything I need to know?”

She stood there, her face damp from stray raindrops and her hair limp.

Even as worn out as she looked, she was beautiful. He didn’t want to wonder why she was here. He’d love to believe his charm had brought her back after all of these years. Her eyes were not looking at him, though, and that meant something was wrong.

“I haven’t been sending you enough money,” he finally said, making a guess as he reached for the bills he’d just put in his pocket for the trip. She was too proud to ask, but she must need something. He pulled out a wad of fifties. “I can stop at my bank again on the way out of town for more. Just let me know how much.”

“I’m fine,” Cat said with no emotion in her voice. “You’ve already sent me more money over the years than I could have expected—so, thank you.”

Then she looked up at him and smiled.

“Still, you must need more,” he insisted, watching her. She was too pale. “I refuse to let you live on those noodle cups. They wouldn’t keep a bird alive.”

After she’d run away from her first foster-care home, she had lived on the streets of Fargo. Sometimes she had jimmied vending machines in the bus station and stolen the noodle packets if she was really hungry. Then she’d gotten hot water from the coffee machine and had dinner. She only permitted herself to steal the noodles if she hadn’t eaten for a few days and then she went back as soon as she could and left the payment in the suggestion box at the station, saying it was for the vending-machine guys. He wondered how long she’d gone this time without eating.

“You do remember those noodle packets?” he prodded further, because she hadn’t answered.

The Cat he remembered would tell him to mind his own business about now. But she just kept smiling. She was trying too hard to show him that everything was all right. If he didn’t know her so well, he would believe her act. But she had a little too much blush on her face. And her smile was too wide. And she moved as if her body ached.

“Had the flu recently?” Jake tried again. Obviously Cat wasn’t anxious to tell him what was wrong, but something was. Maybe she hadn’t been able to work for a while and was short on money. Or maybe Lara needed braces or ballet lessons.

Cat shook her head and just stood there.

Jake had learned a few things from playing poker. He knew how to recognize a bluff in all its disguises and the emotion flashing on her face might as well have been a scarlet letter. There had to be a reason why she was here. She just didn’t want him to know. And she felt bad about it all at the same time.

“You want a new life,” Jake finally guessed in defeat. What else could it be? The day wasn’t so grand after all. It was starting to rain heavy again and he felt foolish for having rushed around getting them ready for a trip that might not happen. “You wanted me to meet Lara because you feel I have a right to that much, but you’re getting ready to marry some man you’ve met and you’re not planning to give me much more than today. So this is my one shot at seeing her.”

“Huh?” She was huddled just outside the backseat of the cab and she had one hand on the bars of the car seat. The rain was beating steady on the overhang above them.

“Who is he?” Jake demanded to know. Even if Jake couldn’t be a proper father to Lara, it still rankled that some other man would be standing in his place.

Just then a streak of lightning flashed across the sky and there was a loud clap of thunder.

“Who is who?” Cat repeated with a frown. “What are you talking about? I hope you have a heater in this pickup.”

“It’s brand new. Right off the lot,” Jake assured her, and all of the fight went out of him. He was going to mess this up; he knew it. But it certainly wasn’t Cat’s fault. And every girl deserved a father. No one would have to look far to find a better one than him.

“It’s nice.” Cat reached over and ran her hands across the leather seats.

Finally, he let his bitterness fade away as he remembered. “Not like that old pickup I used to have at the home. I had to put an old blanket over the front seat so the springs didn’t poke through quite so much. You’ll be comfortable in this one. I promise.”

She smiled at him and he knew she could still picture the beat-up old thing, too. Of course, how could anyone forget it? The red paint had been scraped off one whole fender before he even bought it. The side window hadn’t rolled up for the previous two owners and the heater barely worked. But he’d been proud as could be of that old pickup. He’d driven Cat into town for dinner the day he closed the deal and the pickup could have been a Jaguar the way it made him feel.

“I wonder if Millie’s Café is still there,” he said, lost in the memory of that night long ago.

She nodded. “I ate there a few months ago. They still have those barbecue beef sandwiches we used to like. The ones with the dill pickles on the side.”

“You were at the home?” Now, that surprised him. They’d both vowed never to go back there once they managed to leave.

She nodded. “I wanted to get some of my records from when I was a resident.”

“They must have told you I was looking for you.” Jake found he couldn’t let the subject go. The only reason he’d gone back to the home was to try and find her. “Why didn’t you come see me then? Or call even. I made sure they had my phone number at the home.”

“I was …” She started and stopped. She looked so miserable he felt sorry for her. Then she continued. “It’s not what you think. There isn’t a man in my life or anything like that. I wouldn’t keep you from seeing Lara even if there was.”

The elastic band around Jake’s chest relaxed. He didn’t know how they’d resolve this, but he was glad she hadn’t already replaced him. He stepped closer and lifted her chin so he could look her in the eyes. She smiled at him now and her eyes deepened. This was the Cat he knew.

“I want to be in your life.” He could hear the rain hitting the awning overhead and for the first time it sounded gentle as it fell. “And Lara’s life, too. Just a little bit. I know we can’t tell her. And I know you’re probably worried that I’ll turn out like my father, but I promise I would never raise a hand to either one of you. I—”

“Oh, I never thought that,” Cat said. She looked genuinely horrified. “I never thought you were like that. I know you would never do anything to harm someone.”

Her eyes looked at him with a sincerity he couldn’t question.

He nodded in relief. “Anything else we can handle, then.”

She didn’t answer him, but he figured they had settled the big questions. She was letting him be a part of Lara’s life. And hers in some way. For now, that would be enough.

He cleared his throat to say how grateful he was, but she was already turning.

“Speaking of Lara, I better go get her,” Cat said, as she started walking back to the hotel lobby.

Jake looked through the glass windows and saw Max bringing the girl to the door. She was carrying a white box that he guessed held what was left of her birthday cake. Knowing Max, he had packed some plastic spoons and napkins in the paper bag he was carrying out to them, as well.

“Now you call me when you get to Dry Creek,” Max said as he led Lara to the pickup.

Jake figured he was talking to all of them even though he was looking at the girl.